Will ‘Captain America 2′ Introduce Quasar?

Published 2 years ago
by
Andrew Dyce
, Updated March 2nd, 2013 at 5:54 am,

Allow us to explain, for the uninitiated. Agent Wendell Vaughn made his first appearance, fittingly, in the Captain America series as a skilled S.H.I.E.L.D. officer of who lacked the willingness to ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ in extreme circumstances. At the time of Vaughn’s service, S.H.I.E.L.D. was experimenting on a pair of Quantum Bands believed to have once been created by the Kree – the same alien beings who crafted the ‘Cosmic Cube/Tesseract’ seen throughout ‘Phase One’s films.

In actual fact, the Bands were constructed by the Eternals. In case the distinction seems a bit too ‘fanboy’ to fly with mainstream audiences, there is already one Eternal that movie fans should be familiar with: Thanos, ‘The Mad Titan’.

To make a long origin story short: the lab comes under attack, and Vaughn has no choice but to put on the Quantum Bands in an attempt to defend the installation. In so doing, Vaughn’s lack of a ‘killer instinct’ or temper grants him the ability to absorb the immense energy flow from the artifacts, and win the day. Now granted the ability to emit blasts of cosmic energy and craft constructs from light (think Green Lantern), Vaughn adopts the name ‘Quasar,’ and decides to demonstrate the justice and heroism of the superhumans he once worked beside.

Vaughn would later go on to work with the Avengers, fight Thanos, be ‘killed’ by the Infinity Gauntlet, become best friends with Nova, and if the Marvel writers wanted to tweak the fiction, Vaughn’s successor as Quasar also briefly fought alongside Nova and Star-Lord as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

If that were played out on film, fans would have a hero that is a special effects team’s dream, markedly distinct from any of the other heroes and villains, and whose power is derived from the Cosmic universe that ‘Phase Three’ will almost certainly move toward. Vaughn fighting cosmic evil as Quasar would be a welcome sight, but the journey to that point might be where the most promise lies.

Considering the risks Marvel is taking in moving their films from grounded, more realistic plots to science fiction/fantasy, it would be a brilliant move to introduce Vaughn as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent first. If Vaughn went through ‘Phase Two’ as simply an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. for fans to recognize from one film to another, and only went Cosmic for ‘Phase Three,’ the connections between the more grounded franchises (Iron Man, Captain America) would be far more linked with the cosmic ones (Guardians, Thor). This time by a friendly face, as opposed to a villain.

Seeing the Avengers’ standalone films lead into a team-up was one thing, but having Wendell Vaughn (played by Josh Holloway, or anyone else) begin as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in ‘Phase Two,’ and end up fighting alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy or Avengers in ‘Phase Three’ would be a remarkable instance of character development.

This is all just speculation on our part, but the evidence is piling up. Do you think Quasar should be introduced with the Guardians of the Galaxy, or begin as an operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.? The cast of superheroes isn’t lacking at this point, but as major contracts start to expire, that might be the time for Agent Vaughn to get super. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.

-

The full Marvel ‘Phase Two’ release schedule is as follows: Iron Man 3 hits theaters on May 3rd, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8th, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4th, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1st, 2014, and The Avengers 2 on May 1st, 2015.

87 Comments

Post a Comment

Want to change your avatar?Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Rules: No profanity or personal attacks. Use a valid email address or risk being banned from commenting.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have been flagged for moderation. Please try refreshing the page first, then drop us a note and we'll retrieve it.

Avenging Fangirl 2 years ago

Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America are “largely unknown” to casual fans? Hardly. Even non-fans know who at least two of those are, and most casual Marvel readers know of Hawkeye, Nick Fury, and the Black Widow as well. I’ll give you Betty Ross, Pepper Potts and Maria Hill, but those ladies weren’t primaries.

Well I knew Thor is some hammer holding Greek god but never knew he was a marvel character.
I first came to know abt hulk after his 2003 movie.
Iron man, I had never heard abt him. Came to know abt him from his movie.
Cap. America, I had heard the name but never saw him before The Avengers movie.
So as a non-fanboy, if you ask me, I have absolutely no problem with them expanding their universe. I have come to like each and every hero they have introduced.
But as a LOST fanboy/Sawyer fan, I’d say, hell yes, I want to see Josh Holloway in The avengers team. Be it quasar or the Ant-man. Just bring him in.

Yeah. I think i should have realised. Marvel obviously had to create a new universe. How could they create a superhero out of greek mythology?
But Looks like I proved my point there.

As I said, I didn’t know much about any of the marvel character. Still I loved the movies. So my point is, the non-fanboys or the so called bigger audience doesn’t care about expansion of universe. All they care about is fun.
It’s the fanboys actually who are probably afraid that expanding the universe would imply that there would be lesser screen space and lesser importance of their fav. Character. That’s why they are objecting on the pretext of non-fanboys claiming that they are not ready for more characters when the fact is that the fanboys themselves are probably not ready.

The video game, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 added Hawkeye, Rocket Raccoon, Dr. Strange and Nova as playable characters. One really gets the sense from playing it that Marvel is using the latest version of the game to unveil characters who will eventually appear in its cinematic universe and getting assistance from Capcom in doing so. We know Guardians of the Galaxy will introduce Rocket Raccoon and Dr. Strange will supposedly be introduced in Thor 2. I wonder if Nova will be introduced in the Guardians of the Galaxy or instead of Quasar in Cap 2. I wouldn’t mind seeing both Quasar AND Nova on the big screen.

Great article! I shared this on my Wendell Vaugh – Quasar, the cosmic Avenger facebook page (brand new page)! I am gunning more for seeing Wendell Vaughn show up in the S.H.E.I.L.D. tv series and getting his bands through a two or three episode arch. I know there might be limitations to doing that especially because I think he should go straight from the show right into the movie franchise, but surely there is a way to negotiate that between studios. It would be EPIC and completely undone as far as I know also. I hope Joss Whedon is paying attention and gives it some serious thought and debate with the big wigs!